FSFN, Naya Shakti unify to form Socialist Party Nepal

Setopati

2019-05-06 13:50:25

Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) led by Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Upendra Yadav and Naya Shakti Party Nepal by former PM Baburam Bhattarai have unified to form Socialist Party Nepal. The parties announced unification amidst a program held at the Nepal Academy in Kathmandu Monday afternoon. Improved federal socialism will be the new party's ideology. Bhattarai and Yadav will be the two chairmen of the party with the former ranked the topmost leader and the latter second most. The Yadav led Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, that functioned like an NGO, took steps toward becoming a political party after burning the Interim Constitution of 2006 at Maiti Ghar in Kathmandu. It became the prominent force of Madhes after leading the Madhes movement. Madhesi Janadhikar Forum suffered multiple splits after the first Constituent Assembly election and the FSFN was formed after its unification with Federal Socialist Party Nepal led by Ashok Rai on June 15, 2015. Rai had quit as vice-chairman of the then CPN-UML in 2012. Naya Shakti was formed by Bhattarai June 12, 2016 after he quit the Maoist party on September 26, 2015. Responsibilities of the two chairmen in the unified party have been clearly defined to ensure that there is no dispute between the chairmen after unification. Yadav will be chairman of the central committee while Baburam Bhattarai will chair the federal council. The federal council will evaluate and review the central committee decisions and provide necessary directions. The federal council can even revoke central committee decisions if deemed necessary. The current central members of both FSFN (278) and Naya Shakti (151) will be central members of even the unified party that will have eight vice chairmen, three general secretaries, three deputy general secretaries and five secretaries to go with the two chairmen. The parties have yet to decide whether to remain in the federal government after unification or not. FSFN, that has 16 House of Representatives (HoR) members, has three ministers in the Oli Cabinet while Bhattarai is the only HoR member from Naya Shakti. The new party will submit points for Constitution amendment after unification and will quit the government if the statute is not amended.